BREWING!

Recently many of my friends back in the US have been very busy doing interesting things.  For example:  My friend who lives in Portland Oregon enjoys brewing his own beer.

Portland is the micro-brewery capital of the United States, so it is common for people to make and enjoy their own home-brews.   Many beers are as unique and various as the kinds of people who make them. Most brewers make and customize their own recipes to their own tastes. 

Last weekend my friend entered his home-brew in a local competition.  It didn't win but it was fun to see all of the different beers and brewers gathered together.

Currently my friend is brewing a hefeweizen, or wheat beer that he has titled "Dad's Heffe" Wheat beer has a light taste that is great with a squirt of lemon and is excellent drinking in spring and summer.

Many of you may be asking so just how is beer made?  I asked my friend and he gave me a 5 point 101.  Here is what he said.

Dad's Heffe

First you need to gather your ingredients, which consists of grains, hops, water, yeast, and other "secret" ingredients of your own.

THE PROCESS:

1. Steep the grain, like tea.

2. Boil the resulting liquid (5 gallons about for us). 1 gallon=3.78L

3. Add hops to the boiling liquid. The amount of time the hops boil and how much hops are added gives the beer much of it's aroma and flavor. We used .8 oz of Hops for 5 gallons.

4. Transport to a fermenter and add yeast (it sits for about 2 weeks to a month depending on the beer). The type of yeast and the temperature it ferments at impacts the flavor greatly.

5. Put the now flat beer into a Keg and carbonate for about 2 weeks

6. Enjoy

Pretty cool right?

For those of you interested in beer history and making here is a book that I read about a year ago that was really interesting!  Did you for example know that beer has been around a very very long time, and is one of the things that set Homo-sapiens apart from neanderthals?

 

 The book is:  A History of the World in 6 Glasses, by Tom Standage